TikTok Live is the new gold rush. Here's how to sell shovels.

"Easiest money we'll probably ever make."

That’s what students who went live on TikTok had to say about cashing in on yet another TikTok trend using livestreaming. And by "cashing in," I mean making over $7,000/month.

Before I teach you how to make money from TikTok Live as a software developer, let's spend some time familiarising ourselves with how TikTok Live works.

How TikTok livestreamers make a lot of money

What is TikTok Live? It’s a feature on TikTok where you can livestream to your viewers. Here’s what it looks like:

How do TikTok livestreamers make money? By getting their audience to donate “coins.” TikTok coins can be purchased (1,000 coins cost about $10), and then sent to your favorite streamers.

Why would someone send coins to a streamer? This is where things get interesting.

People have come up with various ways to encourage donations:

As a streamer, you can start a “battle” with one or more other streamers. Here’s an example of a battle:

See the bar at the top of the screen? The red bar shows how many coins the streamer(s) on the left have received. The blue bar shows how many coins the streamer(s) on the right have received.

The timer in the middle shows how much time is left before the “battle” ends (this one has 14 seconds left).

I’ve taken a screenshot of one of the bigger battles on TikTok so you can see how much money people spend on these things. Remember, 1,000 coins are worth about $10, so the streamer(s) on the left have received $7,830 (TikTok takes ~50% of the earnings, so those streamers made about $3,950 from this single battle alone).

Now, people come up with different “themes” or reasons for a battle in order to get people to donate more.

For example, the RestOfTheWorld article I linked above talks about people organizing “Trump vs. Harris” battles. Let’s break down the context:

Two people go live (with their camera and microphone), “battling” on behalf of two highly contested political candidates. The first person shouts, “Trump!” The second shouts, “Harris!” People can donate coins to influence the outcome of the battle. Donations are public: Everyone watching the livestream can see who donated and how much. Streamers also give shoutouts to donors—the bigger the donation, the bigger the shoutout.

As a live viewer, you’re in control: You can influence the battle outcome around a topic you care about (in this case, the presidential elections). TikTok battles are basically pay-to-vote. You get to feel important; if you send a large donation, the streamer might even take their shirt off and shout your name. The other viewers will think more highly of you. Bigger gifts can also trigger visual effects like this one:

It’s an incredible dopamine hit that has hooked many people:

• One person spent their inheritance money ($25,000) on livestreamers

• One woman went to jail for stealing $1.2 million (yes, that’s a million) from her employer and spending it on TikTok coins

How much are TikTok streamers making? It’s not hard to figure out if you watch any semi-popular livestream. The popular Trump vs. Harris streamers made $100 to $1,000 from a single night’s battle.

The key takeaway is that these livestreamers are making real money, which means:

• They’re looking for ways to make even more money using their live streams.

• Competitors are trying to replicate their success.

• People are searching for fresh angles to make money using TikTok livestreams.

Let’s explore a few software ideas based on these 3 JTBDs (Jobs To Be Done).

Software ideas you can create for TikTok livestreamers

Interactive games based on gifts

Check out this screenshot from a TikTok livestream:

This is a game where you can comment a “keyword” and boost your country’s points in a battle. Gifts also contribute to the final result.

There are already a few companies online that sell these games:

These games are pretty simple and integrate with the (unofficial) TikTok API to capture comments/gifts. There are a few popular libraries on GitHub that can help you with this:

The idea: Come up with unique angles and create a game like this. Sell it to people looking to make money on TikTok livestreams without showing their face. The angles that have worked so far are based on countries or trending contests (for example, if two popular celebrities break up, you could create a game that humorously pits them against each other and then sell it to streamers).

Sell a leads list

When I donated to a particular livestreamer, I noticed 1 or 2 creators followed me shortly after.

I’m not sure if this was a coincidence, but it gave me an idea:

The idea: What if you could scrape a list of people who donated on a particular livestream and sell it to other (related) creators? This is a valuable list because it’s made up of people who have money to spend, so livestreamers might want to get on their radar.

You can use existing Github libraries to get the gifters from a particular live stream in real time and then store them in your database.

Accounts, views, and other metrics

Not everyone wants to start from scratch.

The idea: Warning: This might go against TikTok’s TOS. Many people sell TikTok accounts with an established activity, TikTok live views for their live streams, etc. It's a gray area but, according to my experience, in order to get started on a new platform, you almost always need some small, artificial push.

Video overlays

I’ve seen a lot of items on Etsy that sell graphic “overlays” to frame your livestream beautifully. There are also overlays you can show at the start/end of the stream or while you’re pausing.

A directory of battle ideas, based on recent news

We live in a dynamic world, and there are always new ideas around which streamers can start battles:

Two celebrities breaking up Political opponents in different countries Rival countries Rival bands… and so on.

Hope you found this article useful!